Menusha Gunasekara, Matale, Sri Lanka, SSH Blog Correspondent
Sri Lanka has been known to many outsides as a land full of natural beauty, serene smiles and helpful people. However, as a Sri Lankan I am not free to explore the beauty easily as a woman.
When it comes to street harassment, we often receive the advice from our parents, aunts, and others that men are men and mind your own way. The Wariyapola incident was an historical turning point in Sri Lanka in showing the power imbalance in the gendered phenomena of street harassment.
Let me draw your attention to the Wariyapola Incident. First, what was happened! A girl who was waiting to take a bus to Colombo was subjected to comments of a man. Briefly, if I listed actions involved in the situations, those were included commenting that her dress has more holes, following her and asking her phone number, and publicly demonstrating signs of masturbating and asking to have sex with him. The result was she slapped him repeatedly and a video was released in the social media that only captured the part where she was slapping. Yes, the video went viral on social media sparking huge amount of comments.
This post is to look at the incident from different views.
First, I identified the focus on the woman provoking the sexist comments by men. Since the video of her slapping was shared, people said the man was “noble enough” to stay silent without hitting back the girl. It’s sad that the reporting on harassment to civil society comes through media in Sri Lanka. Many newspapers, radios shows and online newspapers were reporting the incident based on the portion which was recorded in the video clip. They were insulting the woman without realizing she was the victim first. They were forgetting the responsibility of investigating the truth and reporting it. I was surprised by this sexist journalism and found only few articles that supported the woman’s side.
The next interesting fact was comments about her dress. If she was dressed up appropriately, which means saree, people said she could not subjected to such harassment. Let me analyze this sexist argument. The saree or the Sinhalese Kandiyan Osariya which exposes back of shoulders, neck and waist of the body is much more appropriate than a wearing jean with a long sleeve blouse. The hidden point in so called appropriate dress is the amount body exposure to outside. However, I am quite sure the Sinhalese national dress exposes body more than any other casual dress. On the top of this, please keep in mind that women used to dress topless for many centuries in Sinhala society. So please do not tell me I can wear the national dress 24/7 and it will be the harassment- proof tool.
Next, the action of the victim, the girl, was unappropriated too according to many men and women in this country. If one asked why it was inappropriate, the answer is that she could have handled the situation without drama. She could have complained to the police and remained silent. Really? Should she?
I have been subjected to several incidents of street harassment each and every time I have used public transportation in last two months. I have exercised the minimum power in such situations as directly looking at the person but if I had the same incident that occurred in Wariyapola, I would not be different because I am aware my body and my dress is not for you entertainment and I am a person not a piece of meat or a sex object. What was the problem of hitting the perpetrator? Neither was it violating the law in the country or harming human rights, but the exercise of the power by the woman which is not the expected role in Sinhalese culture.
Looking at the incident as a whole, it is clear that nobody tells men in this country that you should not cat call, verbally harass or comment on dresses, or engage in any other form of harassment. It is illegal, shameful and not an act of real men. This is not taught in schools neither in religious institutions. I firmly believe that unless you identify these activities as illegal and that they really do exist behind the serene smiles of men in the “land like no other,” it will not absorb in to the general consciousness.
We need to make it visible and show that women are harassed every minute in Sri Lanka regardless of their age, dress code and outlook.
Menusha is a recent graduate of Asian University for Women, Bangladesh and holds a B.S in Public Health. She is an advocate for Peace and Human Rights, Women Issues and Environmental Protection. She can be reached via LinkedIn.
